Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?

In the article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely”, Stephen Marche analyzes the impact of technology, especially social media on current society. One of his main arguments is that social media sites, namely Facebook, makes people become disconnected with other people while consistently being connected on Facebook, or the social media. Marche develops his argument by using many different statistic facts. In addition, new research reports that we have never been lonelier before and this loneness is making us physically and mentally sick.

He starts his article with a story about Yvette Vickers – an actress who died from being lonely. Yvette wasn’t found nearly a year after her death even though she was in contact with many people via social media. Marche makes this story his first point that the advent of newer and faster ways of communication makes us distancing from each other, ultimately creating that isolation and making us lonelier. According to the author “… the more we become connected, the lonelier we are. We promised a global village instead we inhabited the drab cul -de- sacs and endless freeways of vast suburb of information.”

March begins to answer his title question by pointing out how Facebook has become more popular and more addictive aspect in our lives. The Facebook has replaced people face to face socializing through instant communication. March accepts the fact that loneness a hard thing to measure but he carries on to use the statistic report of an AARP survey. This survey found that “ 35 percent of adult older than 45 were chronically lonely, as opposed to 20 percent of similar group decade ago”. Based on study 20 percent of Americans nearly 60 million people are unhappy due to loneness. He uses this survey to help prove his point that social media gives us the ability to replace real human interaction with the instant communication and leads to the loneness. There for real human interaction is important tool of combating loneliness.

Due to the decline in human interaction and increase of loneness the author proposes that this reason for increase of the health issues both mental and physical. Marche supports this with some more statistics regarding a significant increase in medical personnel and social workers. Marche discards any other factors contributing to this increase other than fact that human interaction is declining. Another point he makes is that maybe we, as American prefer to be lonely. Ever since journeyed to this land, cow boys to explore the great west, and astronauts traveled infinite depth of space, seems that American have always been willing to “pay the price “ of loneliness in exchange for pride, self respect, exploration or whatever it may be. Perhaps, being alone is part of American culture. 

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